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BEN  JONSON  AND 

THE  CLASSICAL  SCHOOL 

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i     FELIX  E.  SCHELLING 


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V9, 
BEN  JONSON  S3 

AND  \2^'S 

THE  CLASSICAL  SCHOOL  s«l 


FELIX  E.  SCHELLIXG 

PBOFESSOB  OF  ENGUSH  UTERATTJftE  Ef  THE  CSIVEH-SITV 
OF  P£XSSTI.yAXIA 


BALTIMORE 


1898 


BEN  JONSON  AND  THE  CLASSICAL  SCHOOL. 

"  The  words,  classical  and  romantic,  although,  like  many 
other  critical  expressions,  sometimes  abused  by  those  who 
have  understood  them  vaguely  or  too  absolutely,  yet  define 
two  real  tendencies  in  the  history  of  art  and  literature.  *  *  * 
The  '  classic '  comes  to  us  out  of  the  cool  and  quiet  of  other 
times,  as  the  measure  of  what  a  long  experience  has  shown 
will  at  least  never  displease  us.  And  in  the  classical  literature 
of  Greece  and  Rome,  as  in  the  classics  of  the  last  century,  the 
essentially  classical  element  is  that  quality  of  order  in  beauty, 
which  they  possess,  indeed,  to  a  pre-eminent  degree.  *  *  * 
It  is  the  addition  of  strangeness  to  beauty,  that  constitutes 
the  romantic  character  in  art ;  and  the  desire  of  beauty 
being  a  fixed  element  in  every  artistic  organisation,  it  is  the 
addition  of  curiosity  to  this  desire  of  beauty  that  constitutes 
the  romantic  temper."  ^ 

These  are  the  words  of  that  rare  interpreter  of  the  "  House 
Beautiful,"  the  late  Mr.  Walter  Pater,  and  may  serve  us  as  a 
fitting  position  whence  to  depart  in  a  search  for  the  origin  of 
some  of  those  elements  which  combined  to  produce  the  many 
and  noteworthy  changes  that  came  over  English  literature 
during  the  seventeenth  century. 

Without  entering  here  into  definitions  and  distinctions 
which  have  been  much  aired  and  not  a  little  abused,  it  is 
well  to  notice  that  these  terms  are  not  necessarily  hostile 
to  each  other  or  even  mutually  exclusive.  Classicism  and 
Romanticism  are  tendencies  rather  than  opposed  methods  in 
art.  Literature  has  always  partaken  of  both,  although  one 
may  dominate  in  one  age,  the  other  in  another.  It  may  be 
surmised  that  in  the  ebb  and  flow  of  these  elements  consists 
the  life  of  literature,  and  that  in  the  absolute  triumph  of  either 
lies  its  destruction :  for  death  may  come  to  art  no  less  from 

^  Walter  Pater,  Appreciations,  "Postscript,"  p.  253  f. 


2  FELIX   E.   SCHELLING. 

freedom  run  to  licence  than  from  the  riveted  fetters  of  abso- 
lute convention.  In  a  sense  every  'classic'  has  once  contained 
within  it  the  '  romantic/  has  once  moved  by  its  novelty  and 
appealed  to  curiosity.  If  the  romantic  temper  is  more  con- 
cerned with  the  choice  of  subject,  as  has  sometimes  been 
affirmed,  there  may  be  even  a  finer  art  in  novelty  of  treat- 
ment ;  nor  may  novelty  be  denied  although  it  consist  but  in 
the  change  from  romantic  excesses  grown  common  and  hence 
distasteful.  Be  this  as  it  may,  the  classic  temper  studies  the 
past,  the  romantic  temper  neglects  it.  The  romantic  temper 
is  empirical;  in  its  successful  experiments  it  leads  us  forward, 
as  did  Wordsworth,  Shelley  and  Browning,  and  creates  new 
precedents  on  which  to  found  the  classics  of  the  future.  It 
is  revulsion  from  the  failures  of  romantic  art  that  brings  us 
trooping  back  to  the  classics  with  Matthew  Arnold  who  felt 
that  he  could  "find  the  only  sure  guidance,  the  only  solid 
footing  among  the  ancients."  ^ 

The  history  of  English  literature  since  the  Renaissance 
exhibits  three  periods  of  unusual  interest  in  the  models  of 
the  past,  three  notable  returns  to  the  classics  as  they  were 
understood  in  each  age,  with  a  possible  fourth  period  of 
interest  yet  to  come  and  widely  presaged  in  our  many  retrans- 
lations  of  Greek  and  Roman  authors  and  in  the  poetry  of 
Matthew  Arnold  and  the  late  Mr.  William  Morris.  With 
this  last  we  have  nothing  to  do;  an  important  name  is  identi- 
fied with  each  of  the  other  three :  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  whose 
classicism  was  concerned  with  externals,  and  soon  over- 
whelmed with  the  flood  of  romanticism  on  which  he  was 
himself  "the  first  fair  freight;"  Ben  Jonson,  whose  classicism 
came  alike  by  nature  and  by  study ;  Pope,  who  long  after 
stands  for  the  culmination  of  a  movement  which,  losing  its 
aims  and  substituting  too  often  mere  form  for  living  principle, 
is  none  the  less  worthy  of  a  greater  respect  and  consideration 
than  has  been  usually  accorded  it  at  the  hands  of  the  critics 
of  our  century. 

^  Preface  to  Arnold's  Poems,  ed.  1854. 


BEN  JONSON   AND  THE   CLASSICAL  SCHOOL.  3 

That  minor  contemporaries  of  Sidney  like  Ascham,  Webbe, 
and  Gabriel  Harvey  should  look  to  classic  example  for  the 
salvation  of  English  letters  is  little  to  be  wondered.  Their 
education  demanded  it,  and  contemporary  literature  oifered 
nothing.  Save  Chaucer,  there  was  not  an  English  poet  that 
a  scholar  dared  to  name  with  the  mighty  dead  of  "  insolent 
Greece  or  haughty  Rome ; "  and  Chaucer  was  antiquated  to 
the  Elizabethan,  who  might  love  to  archaize  in  the  pastoral 
lingo  of  Hobbinol  and  Cuddy,  but  who  was  likely  to  leave 
unread  what  he  could  not  readily  conform  to  his  own  time 
and  place.  The  classicism  of  Sidney  is  that  of  his  age,  and 
shows  itself  mainly  in  two  characteristics :  the  reaffirmation 
of  ancient  aesthetic  theory,  in  which  the  Def&nse  of  Poesy  far 
outweighs  all  similar  contemporary  work,  and  in  metrical 
experiments  in  English  verse  modelled  on  classical  prosody. 
In  the  former  Sidney  was  the  companion  of  Gascoigne,  James 
VI,  William  Webbe,  and  George  Puttenham ;  in  the  latter,  of 
Harvey,  Stanihurst,  Abraham  Fraunce,  and  Spenser  himself. 
If  Sidney's  sapphics  and  asclepiads  stand  as  a  warning  to  the 
temerity  of  venturesome  youth,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
our  own  contemporaries  have  not  ceased  from  theorizing  upon 
such  metres  nor  indeed  from  imitating  them.  Such  turning 
to  the  classics  as  Sidney's  and  Spenser's  is  purely  empirical 
and  due  less  to  any  deep  seated  conviction  on  the  subject  than 
to  a  contemplation  of  the  dead  level  of  contemporary  literary 
achievement.  Sidney's  Defense  was  directly  called  forth  by 
Gossou's  attack  upon  poetry  in  his  School  of  Abuse,  and 
Sidney's  own  practice  of  classical  metres  went  hand  in  hand 
with  experiments  in  the  Italian  sonnet,  the  canzone  and  the 
sestine,  many  specimens  of  which  are  to  be  found  in  Astrophel 
and  Stella,  and  in  the  Arcadia.  Lastly,  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find  a  work  farther  removed  from  classical  ideals  than  the 
famous  Arcadia  itself,  the  story  of  which  vies  with  the  Faerie 
Queene  in  rambling  involution  and  elaborated  episode,  the 
style  of  which  is  ornate  and  florid,  though  often  very  beauti- 


4  FELIX  E.   SCHELLING. 

ful,  the  essence  of  which,  in  a  word,  is  novelty,  the  touchstone 
of  romantic  art. 

Vastly  in  contrast  with  this  superficial  imitation  of  classi- 
cal verse  is  the  classicism  of  Ben  Jonson,  from  his  character 
as  a  man  and  a  scholar,  and  in  its  relation  to  his  environment. 
Between  Sidney,  dead  in  the  year  1586,  and  Jonson  begin- 
ning his  career  but  a  year  or  two  short  of  the  next  century,  a 
great  literature  had  sprung  up,  which  up  to  the  end  of  the 
reign  of  Elizabeth  and,  without  the  domain  of  the  drama, 
was  dominated  by  the  overwhelming  influence  of  Spenser. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  contrast  more  marked  than 
that  which  exists  between  Spenser  and  Jonson.  As  the  quali- 
ties of  these  two  poets  in  their  contrasts  are  at  the  very  root 
of  our  subject,  they  must  be  considered  in  some  detail. 

What  may  be  called  the  manner  of  Spenser — i.  e.,  Spenser's 
way  of  imitating  and  interpreting  nature  artistically  by  means 
of  poetic  expression — may  be  summarized  as  consisting  of  a 
sensuous  love  of  beauty,  involving  a  power  of  elaborated 
pictorial  representation,  a  use  of  classical  imagery  for  decora- 
tive effect,  a  fondness  for  melody  of  sound,  a  flowing  sweet- 
ness, naturalness  and  continuousness  of  diction,  amounting  to 
diffuseness  at  times,  the  diffuseness  of  a  fragrant,  beautiful, 
flowering  vine.  We  may  say  of  the  poets  that  employ  this 
manner  that  they  are  worshipers  of  beauty  rather  than 
students  of  beauty's  laws ;  ornate  in  their  expression  of  the 
type,  dwelling  on  detail  in  thought  and  image  lovingly  elabo- 
rated and  sweetly  prolonged.  To  such  artists  it  is  no  matter 
if  a  play  have  five  acts  or  twenty-five,  if  an  epic  ever  come 
to  an  end,  or  if  consistency  of  parts  exist.  Rapt  in  the 
joy  of  gentle  onward  motion,  in  the  elevation  of  pure,  poetic 
thought,  even  the  subject  seems  to  be  of  small  import,  if  it 
but  furnish  the  channel  in  which  the  bright  limpid  liquid 
continues  musically  to  flow.  Drayton,  who,  besides  pastorals 
after  the  manner  of  his  master,  Spenserized  the  enormous 
Polyolhion;  the  allegorical  Fletchers,  Giles  and  Phineas; 
George  Wither  and  William  Browne  in  their  beautiful  later 


BEN  J0N80N  AND  THE  CLASSICAL  SCHOOL.  5 

pastorals ;  Milton  himself  in  his  earliest  poetry,  though  some- 
what restrained  by  a  chaster  taste  than  was  Spenser's  and  by 
a  spirit  in  closer  touch  with  the  classics :  these  are  some  of 
the  multitude  of  followers  and  imitators  of  Spenser. 

If  now  we  will  turn  to  the  poetry  of  Ben  Jonson,  more 
especially  his  lyrical  verse,  the  first  thing  we  note  is  a  sense 
of  form,  not  merely  in  detail  and  transition,  like  the  "  links 
....  bright  and  even  "  of  The  Faerie  Queene,  but  a  sense  of 
the  entire  poem  in  its  relation  to  its  parts.  This  sense  involves 
brevity  and  condensity  of  expression,  a  feeling  on  the  part  of 
the  poet  that  the  effect  may  be  spoiled  by  a  word  too  much — 
a  feeling  which  no  true  Spenserian  ever  knew.  It  is  thus 
that  Jonson  writes  in  courtly  compliment  to  his  patroness 
Lucy,  Countess  of  Bedford  : 

This  morning  timely  rapt  with  holy  fire, 
I  thought  to  form  unto  my  zealous  Muse, 
What  kind  of  creature  I  should  most  desire, 
To  honor,  serve,  and  love,  as  poets  use. 
I  meant  to  make  her  fair,  and  free,  and  wise. 
Of  greatest  blood,  and  yet  more  good  than  great; 
I  meant  the  day-star  should  not  brighter  rise. 
Nor  lend  like  influence  from  his  lucent  seat. 
I  meant  she  should  be  courteous,  facile,  sweet, 
Hating  that  solemn  vice  of  greatness,  pride ; 
I  meant  each  softest  virtue  there  should  meet. 
Fit  in  that  softer  bosom  to  reside. 
Only  a  learnM  and  a  manly  soul 
I  purposed  her ;  that  should,  with  even  powers, 
The  rock,  the  spindle,  and  the  shears  control 
Of  Destiny,  and  spin  her  own  free  hours. 
Such  when  I  meant  to  feign  and  wished  to  see. 
My  Muse  bade  Bedford  write,  and  that  was  she.' 

About  such  poetry  as  this  there  is  a  sense  of  finish  rather 
than  of  elaboration.  It  is  less  continuous  than  complete ; 
more  concentrated,  less  diffuse;  chaste  rather  than  florid; 
controlled,  and  yet  not  always  less  spontaneous ;  reserved, 
and  yet  not  always   less  natural.     There  are  other   things 

^Epigrams,  No.  Lxxvi,  Fol.  1640,  i,  22. 


6  FELIX  E.   SCHELLING. 

in  the  Jonsonian  manner.  It  retained  classical  allusion 
less  for  the  sake  of  embellishment  than  as  an  atmosphere — 
to  borrow  a  term  from  the  nomenclature  of  art.  Its  drafts 
upon  ancient  mythology  become  allusive,  and  the  effects  pro- 
duced by  Horace,  Catullus  or  Anacreon  are  essayed  in 
reproduction  under  English  conditions.  Not  less  eager  in 
the  pursuit  of  beauty  than  the  Spenserian,  the  manner  of 
Jonson  seeks  to  realize  her  perfections  by  means  of  con- 
structive excellence,  not  by  entranced  passion.  It  concerns 
itself  with  choiceness  of  diction,  selectiveness  in  style,  with 
the  repression  of  wandering  ideas  and  loosely  conceived  figures, 
in  a  word  the  manner  of  Jonson  involves  classicality.  Sidney's 
return  to  the  ancients  has  been  called  empirical ;  the  classicism 
of  Jonson  may  be  termed  assimilative. 

It  is  a  commonplace  of  the  history  of  literature  that  Jonson 
literally  dominated  the  age  in  which  he  lived.  But  it  is  not 
so  generally  understood  just  why  this  was  true  in  the  face  of 
the  unexampled  popularity  of  Shakespeare's  plays  and  the 
frequent  failure  of  Jonson's  own,  and  with  the  existence  of 
strong  poetical  counter-influences  which  seemed  more  typical 
of  the  spirit  of  the  time  than  Jonson's  own.  It  is  notable 
that  it  is  the  egotists,  like  Byron  and  Rousseau,  that  often 
most  strongly  impress  themselves  upon  their  own  times ;  they 
are,  in  Ben  Jonson's  well  known  words,  "  of  an  age ; "  those 
who  have  mastered  themselves  and  risen,  as  did  Shakespeare, 
above  his  own  environment  while  still  sharing  it,  move  in 
larger  circles,  and  influence  the  world  "  for  all  time."  Shake- 
speare was  not  literary,  Jonson  was  abundantly  so.  Despite 
Shakespeare's  popular  success,  Jonson  had  with  him  the 
weight  of  the  court  and  the  learned.  Thus  it  came  about 
that  Shakes}>eare  enjoyed  the  greatest  pecuniary  return 
derived  from  literature,  directly  or  indirectly,  until  the 
days  of  Sir  Walter  Scott;  whilst  Jonson,  dependent  on 
patronage,  often  almost  in  want,  achieved  a  reputation  and 
an  influence  in  literature  altogether  unsurpassed  up  to  his 
time.     There  was  only  one  poet  who  shared  even  in  part 


BEN  JONSON  AND  THE  CliASSICAL  SCHOOL.  7 

this  literary  supremacy  of  Jonson,  and  that  poet  was  John 
Donne.  To  Donne,  especially  to  the  Marinist  in  him,  must 
be  granted  the  credit — if  credit  it  be — of  delaying  for  more 
than  a  generation  the  natural  revulsion  of  English  literature 
back  to  classicism  and  restraint.  This  is  not  the  place  in 
which  to  discuss  the  interesting  relations  of  Jonson  and 
Donne.  Except  for  a  certain  rhetorical  and  dialectical 
address,  which  might  be  referred  to  a  study  of  the  ancients, 
the  poetry  of  Donne  is  marked  by  its  disregard  of  conven- 
tions, by  its  extraordinary  originality  of  thought  and  expres- 
sion, by  that  rare  quality  of  poetic  insight  that  justifies 
Jonson's  enthusiastic  claim  that  "John  Donne  [was]  the  first 
poet  in  the  world  in  some  things."'  Not  less  significant  on 
the  other  hand  are  Jonson's  contrasted  remarks  to  Drummond 
on  the  same  topic :  "  That  Donne's  Anniversary  [in  which 
true  womanhood  is  idealized  if  not  deified]  was  profane  and 
full  of  blasphemies,"  and  "that  Donne,  for  not  keeping  of 
accent,  deserved  hanging."  ^  The  classicist  has  always  regarded 
the  romanticist  thus,  nor  have  the  retorts  been  more  courteous, 
as  witness  the  well  known  lines  of  Keats'  Sleep  and  Poetry 
in  which  the  age  of  classicism  is  described  as  "a  schism 
nurtured  by  foppery  and. barbarism."^ 

Thus  we  find  Spenser  and  Jonson  standing  as  exponents 
respectively  of  the  expansive  or  romantic  movement  and  the 
repressive  or  classical  spirit.  In  a  different  line  of  distinction 
Donne  is  equally  in  contrast  with  Spenser,  as  the  intensive, 
or  subjective  artist.  Both  of  these  latter  are  romanticists  in 
that  each  seeks  to  produce  the  effect  demanded  of  art  by 
means  of  an  appeal  to  the  sense  of  novelty;  but  Spenser's 
romanticism  is  that  of  selection,  which  chooses  from  the  outer 
world  the  fitting  and  the  pleasing,  and  constructs  it  into  a 
permanent  artistic  joy.  Donne's  is  the  romanticism  of  insight, 
which,  looking  inward,  descries  the  subtle  relations  of  things 
and  transmutes  them  into  poetry  with  a  sudden  and  unex- 

^Jonson'a  Conversationa  with  Drummond,  Shakespeare  Society,  1842,  p.  8. 
'Ibid.,  p.  3.  'Poems  by  John  KecUs,  ed.  Bates,  1896,  p.  59. 


8  FELIX   E.   8CHELLING. 

pected  flood  of  light.  Between  Jonson  and  Donne  there  is  the 
kinship  of  intellectuality;  between  Spenser  and  Donne  the 
kinship  of  romanticism ;  between  Spenser  and  Jonson  the  kin- 
ship of  the  poet's  joy  in  beauty.  Spenser  is  the  most  objective 
and  therefore  allegorical  and  mystical ;  Donne  is  the  most 
subjective  and  the  most  spiritual ;  Jonson,  the  most  artistic 
and  therefore  the  most  logical. 

But  not  only  did  Jonson  dominate  his  age  and  stand  for  the 
classical  ideal  in  the  midst  of  current  Spenserianism,  Marin- 
ism,  and  other  popular  modes,  it  was  this  position  of  Jonson, 
defended  as  it  was  in  theory  as  well  as  exemplified  in  his 
work,  that  directed  the  course  which  English  literature  was 
to  take  for  a  century  and  a  half  after  his  death.  There  are 
few  subjects  in  the  history  of  English  literature  attended  with 
greater  difficulty  than  the  attempt  to  explain  how  the  lapse 
of  a  century  in  time  should  have  transformed  the  literature  of 
England  from  the  traits  which  characterized  it  in  the  reign 
of  Queen  Elizabeth  to  those  which  came  to  prevail  under  the 
rule  of  Queen  Anne.  The  salient  characteristics  of  the  two 
ages  are  much  too  well  known  to  call  for  a  word  here.  Few 
readers,  moreover,  are  unfamiliar  with  the  more  usual  theories 
on  this  subject :  how  one  critic  believes  that  Edmund  Waller 
invented  the  new  poetry  by  a  spontaneous  exercise  of  his  own 
cleverness ;  ^  how  another  demands  that  this  responsibility  be 
fixed  upon  Greorge  Sandys.*  How  some  think  that  "  classic- 
ism "  was  an  importation  from  France,  which  came  into 
England  in  the  luggage  of  the  fascinating  Frenchwoman, 
who  afterwards  became  the  Duchess  of  Portsmouth ;  and  how 
still  others  suppose  that  the  whole  thing  was  really  in  the 

'  Grosse,  Eighteenth  Century  Literature,  p.  2. 

■Henry  Wood,  "Beginnings  of  the  'Classical'  Heroic  Couplet  in  Eng- 
land : "  "At  all  events  it  was  Sandys,  and  not  Waller,  who  at  the  beginning 
of  the  third  decade  of  the  century,  first  of  all  Englishmen,  made  a  uniform 
practice  of  writing  in  heroic  couplets  which  are,  on  the  whole,  in  accord 
with  the  French  rule,  and  which,  for  exactness  of  construction,  and  for  har- 
monious .versification,  go  far  towards  satisfying  the  demands  of  the  later 
'  classical '  school  in  England." — American  Journal  of  Philology,  xi,  p.  73. 


BEN  JONSON   AND  THE  CLASSICAL  SCHOOL.  9 

air,  to  be  caught  by  infection  by  anyone  who  did  not  draw 
apart  and  live  out  of  the  literary  miasma  as  did  Milton.^  It 
may  not  be  unnecessary  to  add  that  some  of  these  theorists 
place  the  beginning  and  end  of  "  classicism  "  in  the  definite 
and  peculiar  construction  of  a  certain  species  of  English  deca- 
syllabic verse ;  and  that  even  when  they  escape  this,  the 
"heroic"  or  "Popean  couplet"  has  always  usurped  an  undue 
share  of  consideration. 

The  conservative  reaction  which  triumphed  with  the  Res- 
toration has  been  so  "hardly  entreated"  and  so  bitterly 
scorned  that  there  is  much  temptation  to  attempt  a  justifi- 
cation. Imaginative  literature  did  lose  in  the  change,  and 
enormously ;  but  if  the  imagination,  and  with  it  the  power 
that  produces  poetry,  became  for  a  time  all  but  extinct, 
the  understanding,  or  power  which  arranges,  correlates, 
expounds  and  explains,  went  through  a  course  of  develop- 
ment which  has  brought  with  it  in  the  end  nothing  but  gain 
to  the  literature  considered  as  a  whole. 

If  the  reader  will  consider  the  three  great  names,  Ben 
Jonson,  finishing  his  work  about  1635,  John  Dryden,  at  the 
height  of  his  fame  fifty  years  later,  and  Alexander  Pope,  with 
nearly  ten  years  of  literary  activity  before  him  a  century 
after  Jonson's  death,  he  will  notice  certain  marked  difierences 
in  a  general  resemblance  in  the  range,  subject-matter  and 
diction  of  the  works  of  these  three.  The  plays  of  Jonson, 
despite  the  restrictive  character  of  his  genius,  exemplify  nearly 
the  whole  spacious  field  of  Elizabethan  drama,  with  an  added 
success  in  the  development  of  the  masque,  which  is  Jonson's 
own.  Jonson  is  the  first  poet  that  gave  to  occasional  verse 
that  variety  of  subject,  that  power  and  finish,  which  made  it, 
for  nearly  two  centuries,  the  most  important  form  of  poetical 
expression.  The  works  of  Jonson  are  pervaded  with  satire, 
criticism  and  translation,  though  all  appear  less  in  set  form 
than  as  applied  to  original  work.     Finally  Jonson's  lyrics 

^  Goese,  From  Shakespeare  to  Pope,  p.  19. 


10  FELIX  E.   SCHELLING. 

maintain  the  diversity,  beauty  and  originality  which  distin- 
guishes this  species  of  poetry  in  his  favored  age. 

If  we  will  turn  now  to  Dryden,  we  still  find  a  wide  range 
in  subject,  although  limitations  are  discoverable  in  the  charac- 
ter of  his  dramas  and  of  his  lyrics.  If  we  except  his  operas 
and  those  pseudo-dramatic  aberrations  in  which  he  adapted 
the  work  of  Shakespeare  and  Milton,  Dryden  writes  only  two 
kinds  of  plays,  the  Heroic  Drama  and  the  Comedy  of  Manners ; 
whilst  his  lyrics,  excepting  the  two  odes  for  Saint  Cecilia's 
Day  and  some  perfunctory  religious  poems,  are  wholly  amatory 
in  the  narrow  and  vitiated  sense  in  which  that  term  was 
employed  in  the  time  of  Charles  II.  The  strongest  element 
of  Dryden's  work  is  occasional  verse ;  and  he  makes  a  new  de- 
parture, showing  the  tendency  of  the  time,  in  the  development 
of  wriat  may  be  called  occasional  prose  :  the  preface  and  dedi- 
catory epistle.  Satire  takes  form  in  the  translation  of  Juvenal 
and  in  the  author's  own  brilliant  original  satires,  translation 
becomes  Dryden's  most  lucrative  literary  employment,  and 
criticism  is  the  very  element  in  which  he  lives.  Lastly,  we 
turn  to  Pope.  Here  are  no  plays  and  very  few  lyrics,  .'scarcely 
one  which  is  not  an  applied  poem.  Occasional  verse,  satire, 
criticism,  and  translation  have  usurped  the  whole  field.  There 
was  no  need  that  Pope  should  write  his  criticism  in  prose,  as 
did  Dryden ;  for  verse  had  become  in  his  hands  essentially  a 
medium  for  the  expression  of  that  species  of  thought  which 
we  in  this  century  associate  with  the  prose  form.  The  verse 
of  Pope  was  a  medium  more  happily  fitted  for  the  expression 
of  the  thought  of  Pope,  where  rhetorical  brilliancy  and  telling 
antithesis  rather  than  precision  of  thought  was  demanded,  than 
any  prose  that  could  possibly  have  been  devised. 

It  has  often  been  affirmed  that  England  has  the  greater 
poetry,  whilst  France  possesses  the  superior  prose ;  and  in 
the  confusion  or  distinction  of  the  two  species  of  literature 
this  difference  has  been  explained.'    Poetry  must  be  governed 

'  See  in  general  Matthew  Arnold's  essay  on  "  The  Literary  Influence  of 
Academies." 


BEN  JONSON   AND  THE  CLASSICAL  SCHOOL.  11 

by  the  imagination,  it  must  not  only  see  and  imitate  nature, 
it  must  transform  what  it  sees,  converting  the  actual  into  the 
terras  of  the  ideal :  if  it  does  much  beside,  it  is  less  poetry. 
On  the  other  hand,  prose  is  a  matter  of  the  understanding,  to 
call  in  as  helps  whatever  other  faculty  you  will,  but  to  be 
ruled  and  governed  by  the  intelligence  alone,  to  the  end  that 
the  object  may  be  realized  as  it  actually  is.  With  this  dis- 
tinction before  us,  when  passion,  real  or  simulated,  when 
imagination,  genuine  or  forced,  takes  the  reins  from  the 
understanding,  the  product  may  become  poetry,  or  enthusi- 
asm, or  rhapsody ;  it  certainly  ceases  to  be  prose,  good,  bad 
or  indifferent.  So,  likewise,  when  the  understanding  sup- 
plants imagination,  we  have  also  a  product,  which,  whatever 
its  form  or  the  wealth  of  rhetoric  bestowed  upon  it,  is  alien 
to  poetry.  This  is  to  be  interpreted  into  no  criticism  of  the 
many  English  literary  products,  which  have  the  power  to 
run  and  to  fly ;  we  could  not  spare  one  of  the  great  pages  of 
Carlyle,  or  of  Mr.  Ruskin ;  and  yet  it  may  well  be  doubted 
if,  on  the  whole,  the  French  have  not  been  somewhat  the 
gainers  from  the  care  with  which  they  have  customarily,  and 
until  lately,  kept  their  prose  and  their  poetry  sundered. 

Up  to  this  point  it  has  been  our  endeavor  to  establish 
the  simultaneous  existence  of  the  restrictive  as  well  as  the 
romantic  element  in  our  literature  as  early  as  the  reign  of 
Elizabeth,  to  show  the  relation  of  the  one  to  the  other  in 
the  stretch  of  years  that  elapsed  from  her  reign  to  that  of 
Queen  Anne,  and  to  exemplify  the  relation  of  Jonson  (who 
is  claimed  to  be  the  exponent  of  the  classical  spirit)  to  his 
immediate  contemporaries  and  to  his  two  most  typical  suc- 
cessors. Let  us  now  examine  some  of  the  reasons  which  may 
be  urged  for  placing  Jonson  in  so  prominent  a  position. 

In  Ben  Jonson  we  have  the  earliest  example  of  the  inter- 
esting series  of  English  literary  men  who  have  had  definite 
theories  about  literature.  Dryden,  Pope,  and  Wordsworth 
were  such,  each  potent  in  moulding  the  taste  of  his  own 


12  FELIX  E.   SCHELLING. 

age,  and,  with  it,  the  course  which  literature  was  to  take  in 
times  to  come.  It  is  notorious  that  the  attitude  of  Jonson 
towards  the  prevalent  literary  taste  of  his  age  was  far  from 
conciliatory.  He  despised  the  popular  judgment  with  an 
arrogance  unparalleled  in  the  annals  of  literature,  although 
he  constantly  professed  himself  solicitous  of  the  favorable 
opinion  of  the  judicious.  Jonson  was  a  great  moralist  in  his 
way,  and  "of  all  styles  he  loved  most  to  be  named  Honest;"^ 
but  he  was  likewise  an  artist,  and  many  of  his  current  criti- 
cisms of  his  contemporaries :  his  strictures  on  Shakespeare  for 
his  anachronisms,  on  Sidney  for  making  all  the  characters 
of  the  Arcadia  speak  like  gentlemen  and  gentlewomen,  his 
objection  to  the  obscurity  and  irregular  versification  of  Donne, 
are  referable  to  an  outraged  aesthetic  sense.^  This  position 
was  altogether  conscious,  the  position  of  the  professional 
man  who  has  a  theory  to  oppose  to  the  amateurishness  and 
eclecticism  abundantly  exemplified  in  contemporary  work  ; 
and  Jonson  must  have  felt  toward  the  glittering,  multiform 
literature  of  Elizabeth  much  what  Matthew  Arnold  suflFered 
"  amid  the  bewildering  confusion  of  our  times  "  and  might 
well  have  exclaimed  with  him,  "  I  seemed  to  myself  to  find 
the  only  sure  guidance,  the  only  solid  footing,  among  the 
ancients.  They,  at  any  rate,  knew  what  they  wanted  in  Art, 
and  we  do  not.  It  is  this  uncertainty  which  is  disheartening."* 
The  theories  which  Ben  Jonson  held  about  literature  were 
from  the  first  those  of  the  classicist.  He  believed  in  the 
criticism  of  Horace  and  in  the  rhetoric  of  Quintilian  ;  *  in  the 
sanction  of  classical  usage  for  history,  oratory,  and  poetry.  He 
believed  that  English  Drama  should  follow  the  example  of  the 
vettis  comoedia,'^  and  that  an  English  ode  should  be  modelled 

^JoMon's  Gonversations  with  Drummond,  as  above,  p.  37. 

'Ibid.,  pp.  16,  2,  and  3. 

•  Preface  to  Matthew  Arnold's  Poems,  ed.  1864. 

*See  the  many  passages  of  the  Discoveries  mhich  are  no  more  than  trans- 
lations of  the  Institules,  and  the  weight  given  to  the  theories  of  Horace  in 
the  same  book. 

'Prologue  to  Every  Man  out  of  his  Humour,  PoL  1640,  i,  74. 


BEN  JONSON  AND  THE  CLASSICAL  SCHOOL.  13 

faithfully  on  the  structural  niceties  of  Pindar.  Despite  all 
this,  Jonson's  theories  about  literature  were  not  only,  in  the 
main,  reasonable  and  consistent,  they  were  often  surprisingly 
liberal.  Thus  he  could  laugh,  as  he  did,  in  a  well  known 
passage  of  the  prologue  to  Every  Man  in  His  Humour,  at  the 
absurdities  of  contemporary  stage  realism  which, 

with  three  rusty  swords, 
And  help  of  some  few  foot-and-half-foot  words, 
Fight  over  York  and  Lancaster's  long  jars; 
And  in  the  tiring-house  bring  wounds  to  scars ;  ^ 

and  yet  declare,  as  to  that  fetish  of  the  supine  classicist,  the 
three  unities,  that  "  we  [English  playwrights]  should  enjoy 
the  same  licence  or  free  power  to  illustrate  and  heighten  our 
invention  as  they  [the  ancients]  did ;  and  not  be  tied  to  those 
strict  and  regular  forms  which  the  niceness  of  a  few,  who  are 
nothing  but  form,  would  thrust  upon  us."'^  He  could  aflBrm 
that  "Spenser's  stanzas  pleased  him  not,  nor  his  matter;"' 
and  yet  tell  Drummond  that  "  for  a  heroic  poem  there  was  no 
such  ground  as  King  Arthur's  fiction  "  (i.  e.  the  legends  con- 
cerning King  Arthur).*  He  censured  the  pastoralists  for 
their  unreality,  and  yet  he  had  by  heart  passages  of  the 
Shepherds'  Calendar^  and  showed  how  to  write  a  true  pastoral 
drama  in  the  Sad  Shepherd;  he  mocked  the  sonneteers," 
especially  Daniel,^  in  his  satirical  plays,  for  their  sugared 
sweetness  and  frivolity,  but  wrote  himself  some  of  the  finest 
lyrics  of  his  age.  The  catholicity  of  Jonson's  taste  in  its 
sympathy  included  the  philosophy  and  eloquence  of  Lord 
Bacon,  the  divinity  of  Hooker,  the  historical  and  antiquarian 
enquiries  of  Camden  and  Selden,  the  classical  scholarship  of 
Chapman  and  the  poetry  of  such  diverse  men  as  Spenser, 
Father  Southwell,  Donne,  Sandys,  Herrick,  Carew,  and 
his  lesser  "sous."^ 

^Ibid.,  i,  5.  'Ibid..,  i,  74.  ^Conversations,  as  above,  p.  2. 

*Ibid.,  p.  10.  ^Ibid.,  p.  9.  « J6id.,  p.  4. 

^  See  especially  on  this  topic  The  War  of  the  Theatres  by  J.  H.  Penniman, 
Puhlications  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  Series  in  Philology,  Literature 
and  Archaeology,  Vol.  IV,  No.  3,  pp.  24-30,  53,  64. 

*  See  the  Conversations,  as  above,  passim. 


14  FELIX  E.  8CHELLING. 

The  characteristics  of  Jonson  as  the  exponent  of  the  con- 
servative spirit  in  literature  in  an  age  conspicuous  for  its 
passionate  love  of  novelty  are  somewhat  these :  an  unusual 
acquaintance  with  the  literature  of  Greece  and  Rome,  a  hold- 
ing of  "  the  prose  writers  and  poets  of  antiquity,"  to  employ 
the  happy  phrase  of  the  late  Mr.  John  Addington  Symonds, 
"  in  solution  in  his  spacious  memory,"  and  a  marvelous  ability 
to  pour  them  "plastically  forth  into  the  mould  of  thought  ;"* 
a  keen  appreciation  of  the  principles  which  lie  at  the  root  of 
classical  literature,  with  an  intelligent  recognition  and  a  liberal 
interpretation  of  those  principles  in  their  adaptation  to  the 
needs  of  contemporary  English  conditions.  The  rhetorician 
in  Jonson  was  alike  his  distinction  and  his  greatest  limitation. 
It  was  this  which  gave  him  an  ever-present  sense  of  an  inspir- 
ing design,  whether  it  was  in  the  construction  of  a  complete 
play  or  in  the  selection  and  ordering  of  the  words  of  a  single 
clause.  These  more  general  characteristics  of  the  classicist 
will  be  recognized  at  once  as  Jonson's ;  but  even  the  specific 
qualities  that  mark  the  coming  age  of  English  classicism  are 
his.  We  have  already  remarked  Jonson's  fondness  for  satire 
and  criticism,  and  his  exceeding  use  of  that  species  of  applied 
poetry  called  occasional  verse.  Restriction  in  the  ranigje  of 
subject  is  always  attended  by  a  corresponding  restriction  ir  ,  jyle 
and  form,  and  we  are  prepared  to  find  in  Jonson's  occa  nonal 
verse  a  strong  tendency  to  precise  and  pointed  antithetical 
diction,  and  a  somewhat  conventionalized  and  restricted  metri- 
cal form.  If  we  will  look  at  Jonson's  prose  we  shall  find 
other  "notes"  only  less  marked  of  the  coming  classical 
supremacy,  in  his  slightly  Latinized  vocabulary  and  in  his 
occasional  preference  for  abstract  over  concrete  expression. 

Take  the  following  from  the  Discoveries:  "There  is  a 
difference  between  mooting  and  pleading ;  between  fencing 
and  fighting.  To  make  arguments  in  my  study  and  to  con- 
fute them,  is  easy ;  where  I  answer  myself,  not  an  adversary. 
So  I  can  see  whole  volumes  despatched  by  the  umbractical 

^Ben  Jonson^  English  Worthies,  p.  52. 


BEN  JONSON   AND   THE  CLASSICAL  SCHOOL.  15 

doctors  on  all  sides  ....  but  indeed  I  would  no  more  choose 
a  rhetorician  for  reigning  in  a  school,  than  I  would  a  pilot 
for  rowing  in  a  pond."  ^  And  again  :  "  When  a  virtuous  man 
is  raised,  it  brings  gladness  to  his  friends,  grief  to  his  enemies 
and  glory  to  his  posterity.  Nay,  his  honors  are  a  great  part 
of  the  honor  of  the  times ;  when  by  this  means  he  is  grown 
to  active  men  an  example,  to  the  slothful  a  spur,  to  the 
envious  a  punishment."  ^ 

Besides  Jonson's  several  strictures  on  cross  rimes,  the 
stanzas  of  Spenser,  the  alexandrine  of  Drayton,  English 
hexameters  and  sonnets,  the  very  first  entry  of  the  Con- 
versations  with  Drummond  tells  us  of  a  projected  epic  with 
the  added  information  "  it  is  all  in  couplets  for  he  detested 
all  other  rimes."  ^  A  little  below  Jonson  tells  of  his  having 
written  against  Campion's  and  Daniel's  well-known  treatises 
on  versification  to  prove  "couplets  to  be  the  bravest  sort  of 
verses,  especially  when  they  are  broken  like  hexameters," 
i.  e.,  exhibit  a  regular  caesural  pause.* 

The  non-dramatic  verse  of  Jonson  was  grouped  by  the 
author  under  the  headings  Epigrams  and  The  Forest,  both 
published  in  the  Folio  of  1616,  and  Underwoods,  mis- 
cellaneous poems  of  the  collected  edition  of  1640.  Aside 
from  his  strictly  lyrical  verse  in  which  Jonson  shared  the 
metrical  inventiveness  and  variety  of  his  age,  the  decasyllabic 
rimed  couplet  is  all  but  his  constant  measure.  For  epistles, 
elegies,  and  epigrams,  some  two  hundred  poems,  he  seldom 
uses  any  other  verse,  and  he  employs  this  verse  in  translation 
and  sometimes  even  for  lyric  purposes.  In  Jonson's  hands 
the  decasyllabic  couplet  became  the  habitual  measure  for 
occasional  verse,  and,  sanctioned  by  his  usage,  remained  such 
for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years.  But  not  only  did  Jonson's 
theory  and  practise  coincide  in  his  overwhelming  preference 

^Discoveries,  ed.  Schelling,  p.  16.  Cf.  also,  "  In  her  indagations  often  times 
new  scents  put  her  by,  and  she  takes  in  errors  into  her  by  the  same  con- 
duits she  doth  truths." — Ibid.,  p.  28. 

*Ibid.,  42.  'Ibid.,  pp.  2,  4,  and  1.  *Ibid.,  p.  2. 

2 


16 


FELIX  E.  8CHELLING. 


for  this  particular  form  of  verse,  but  the  decasyllabic  couplet 
as  practised  by  Jonson  exemplifies  all  the  characteristics 
which,  in  greater  emphasis,  came  in  time  to  distinguish  the 
manner  and  versification  of  Waller  and  Dryden.  Moreover, 
the  practice  of  no  other  poet  exemplifies  like  characteristics  to 
anything  approaching  the  same  extent  until  we  pass  beyond 
the  accession  of  Charles  I. 

In  an  examination  of  the  versification  of  several  Eliza- 
bethan and  later  poets  ^  for  the  purpose  of  establishing  the 

'As  to  versification,  the  following  passages  have  been  considered  as 
typical,  one  hundred  lines  in  each  case: 

1591,  Spenser:     (a)  Mother  HvhberdHs  Tale,  lines  1-100,  Riv.  Ed.,  p.  99. 

(b)       "  "  "        "      977-1077,  p.  133. 

1593,  Marlowe,  Hero  and  Leander,  Sestiad  I,  lines  1-100,  ed.  Bohn, 

p.  157. 
1598,  Drayton,  Bosamond  to  Henry  TI,  England's  Heroieal  Epiitles,  ed. 

Drayton,  1619,  p.  105. 
1600,  Chapman,  Hero  and  Leander,  Sestiad  VI,  last  100  lines,  as  above, 

p.  226. 
1603,  Jonson :       (a)  ^  Panegyry  on  the  Happy  enimnee  of  James  our  Sovereign 

to  his  first  high  session  of  Parlimenl  in  this  Kingdom, 

Ed.  1640,  i,  87. 
1612  (b)  To  Penshursf,  pr.  in  Fol.  of  1616,  ed.  Bohn,  p.  347. 

1616  (c)  The  first  XVII  Epigrams  and  four  lines  of  XVIII, 

excepting  Epig.  VIII,  which  is  not  in  couplets,  and 

Epig.  XII,  which  has  a  peculiar  movement,  due  to 

its  subject,  and  is  hence  not  a  fair  example,  ibid.,  pp. 

283-88. 
1623  (d)  An  Execration  on  ViUean,  p.  461. 

1631  (e)  Elegy  on  Lady  WinUm,  p.  552. 

1636,  Sandys:       (a)  Psalm  LXXIIL    Library  of  Old  Authors,  Sandys,  it,. 

p.  204. 
1638  (b)  Paraphrase  upon  the  Book  of  Job,  -Und.,  l,  1. 

1641  (c)  Deo  Optimo  Maximo,  ibid.,  ii,  403. 

1660,  Waller:       (a)  To  the  King,  ed.  Drury,  p.  163. 
1678-80  (b)  On  the  Duke  of  MonmotUh's  Expedition,  1678,  48  lines. 

On  the  Earl  of  Roscommon' s  Translation  of  Horace,  1680, 

52  lines,  ed.  Drury,  pp.  212  and  214. 
1660,  Dryden :      (a)  Astraea  Redux,  Globe  ed.,  p.  8. 
1687  (b)  Hind  and  the  Panther,  ib.,  p.  171. 

1693  (c)  Epistle  to  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller,  ib.,  p.  264. 

1713,  Pope:  (a)  Windsor  Forest,  Chandos  ed.,  p.  95. 

1732  (b)  Essay  on  Man,  Epistie  IV,  lines  19-110,  ibid.,  p.  218. 


BEN  JONSON  AND  THE  CLASSICAL  SCHOOL. 


17 


truth  of  this  proposition,  several  things  are  to  be  noted. 
Spenser's  use  of  the  couplet,  despite  the  early  date  of  his 
only  example  {Mother  Hubberd's  Tale)  and  his  conscious 
imitation  in  it  of  Chaucer,  was  found  to  stand  as  a  very 
fair  representative  of  the  use  of  this  metre  by  those  who 
followed  Spenser  in  other  particulars  of  style  and  versifica- 
tion. Spenser's  use  of  the  couplet  has  therefore  been  employed 
as  representative  here.  Thus  although  a  certain  rigidity  of 
manner,  that  caused  hira  all  but  to  give  up  run-on  couplets 
and  lines,  distinguishes  the  couplets  of  Drayton,  and  although 
Chapman  shows  a  greater  freedom  and  variety  in  the  same 
respects,  both  these  poets,  with  many  others,  their  contempo- 
raries, may  be  said  to  use  the  couplet  in  a  manner  in  general 
resembling  that  of  Spenser,  and  to  group  with  him  in  not 
making  a  strong  medial  caesura  a  characteristic  of  their  use 
of  this  verse.  As  we  are  not  concerned  with  these  poets  in 
this  discussion  except  so  far  as  the  determination  that  Spenser 
is  representative  of  them,  the  figures  which  establish  this 
point  may  be  relegated  to  the  note  below.^ 

In  the  case  of  Jonson  a  consideration  of  the  length  of  his 
career  and  the  variety  of  his  practice  demanded  a  wider  range 

'  This  table  may  be  compared  with  that  of  the  text  below,  p.  238.  The 
count  is  made  upon  the  passages  mentioned  in  the  note  preceding  this,  and 
the  averages  of  Spenser  and  Sandys  are  repeated  from  the  other  table  for 
convenience  of  comparison.  It  will  be  noted  that  Sandys  corresponds  to 
Drayton  in  his  use  of  the  continuous  line,  and  to  Marldwe  in  the  frequency 
of  the  medial  caesura,  whilst  his  freedom  in  the  run-on  line  exceeds  even 
that  of  Chapman. 


Run-on  Couplets 

Bun-on  Lines 

Continuous  Lines „ 

Lines  showing  a  Medial  Caesura 


Oli-I 

w2 


5 

19.5 
59 
35 


t£  OS 


2 
11 
51 
40 


1 

4 
46 
44 


■<to 


12 
28 
55 
38 


5 
22.6 
47 
40 


18 


FELIX   E.   SCHELLING. 


from  which  to  judge.  The  passages  chosen  range  from  1603 
to  1631,  and  include  almost  every  species  of  poetry  which 
Jonson  wrote  in  this  verse.  Sandys  exhibited  an  unexpected 
diversity  of  manner,  although  within  a  well  defined  range. 
The  poem  Deo  Optimo  Maximo  is  the  only  original  poem  of 
any  length  by  Sandys  :  it  has  been  considered  with  two  trans- 
lations. Lastly,  the  passages  from  Waller,  Dryden,  and  Pope 
will  be  seen  to  take  into  consideration  both  the  earlier  and 
the  later  manner  of  each. 

The  points  considered  in  this  enquiry  are  (1)  the  number 
of  the  run-on  couplets ;  (2)  the  number  of  run-on  lines ;  (3) 
the  character  of  the  line  as  to  internal  caesura,  especially 
in  the  contrast  which  exists  between  the  continuous  line  ii.  e., 
one  in  which  there  is  no  internal  caesura)  and  that  exhibiting 
an  ir.fernal  caesura  so  placed  as  to  produce  the  effect  of  split- 
ting the  line  into  two  halves.  This  last  results  when  the 
rhetorical  pause  occurs  after  the  second  stressed  syllable  or 
after  either  of  the  syllables  following.  This  tendency  to  split 
the  decasyllabic  line  into  two  is  a  notorious  feature  in  the 
versification  of  the  Popean  School ;  as  well  as  of  Waller  Sind 
Dryden.  It  is  scarcely  less  marked  in  the  verse  of  Jonson. 
The  following  table  gives  the  average  of  all  the  passages 
examined  and  for  each  author : 


Sun-on  Couplets 

Run-on  Lines 

Lines  which  show  no  Me-) 
dial  Caesura / 

Lines  showing  a  caesura  \ 
after  the  fourth,  fifth  [• 
and  sixth  syllables j 

Lines  showing  a  caesura  T 
after  the  fourth,  fifth,  I 
sixth  and  seventh  sylla-  [ 
bles 


6. 
19.5 

59. 
35. 


35.5 


5. 
22.6 

47. 
40. 


44.6 


•-9* 


4.4 
21.8 

26. 
65.2 


64.4 


SS 


^2 


3.5 
J  2.5 

36. 
56. 


58.5 


H  CO 
Kco 


.6 
7.6 

36.3 


53. 


55. 


0. 
5.5 

21. 


67.5 


71. 


BEN   JONSON   AND   THE  CLASSICAL  SCHOOL.  19 

The  following  features  appear : — 

1.  As  to  the  run-on  couplets,  Jonson  shows,  with  Sandys 
and  Spenser,  the  earlier  freedom,  and  shows  it  to  about  the 
same  degree.  But  Waller  shows  it  too,  and  his  proportion 
in  this  respect  (3.5)  is  far  nearer  to  Jonson's  (4.4)  than  to 
Dryden's  (which  is  only  .6).  Pope  gave  up  the  run-on 
couplet.  2.  As  to  run-on  lines,  Sandys  exhibits  a  slightly 
larger  proportion  than  Jonson  or  Spenser,  but  their  averages 
(Spenser,  19.5,  Sandys,  22.6,  Jonson,  21.8)  are  substantially 
the  same.  It  may  be  noted  that  Jonson's  average  in  run-on 
couplets  and  verses  falls  in  his  Epigrams  very  nearly  to  that 
of  Dryden  in  The  Hind  and  the  Panther;  the  former  showing 
eleven  run-on  lines  and  the  latter  nine;  both  having  two 
run-on  couplets.  But  nearly  the  same  is  true  of  Sandys' 
Paraphrase  of  the  Psalm  LXXIII,  in  which  there  is  but  one 
run-on  couplet  and  eleven  run-on  lines.  On  the  other  hand 
Sandys'  freest  verse  in  these  respects,  the  Paraphrase  of  Joby 
surpasses  the  utmost  freedom  of  Jonson.  Thus  as  to  run-on 
couplets  and  run-on  lines,  the  test  places  Spenser,  Sandys 
and  Jonson  in  one  group,  with  Waller  and  Jonson  showing 
averages  which  dwindle  to  the  stricter  manner  of  Pope  in 
these  respects.  It  may  be  remarked  in  passing  that  it  is  a 
mistake  to  consider  that  the  Elizabethans  often  practised  the 
couplet  with  the  freedom,  not  to  say  licence,  that  characterizes 
its  nineteenth  century  use  in  the  hands  of  such  poets  as  Keats. 

Now  if  these  passages  be  considered  with  reference  to 
the  occurrence  of  a  medial  caesura  and  the  contrasted  non- 
occurrence of  any  caesura  within  the  lines,  they  fall  at  once 
into  two  groups,  (1)  that  of  Spenser  and  Sandys,  whose 
manner  is  continuous  and  whose  use  of  the  internal  caesura  is 
correspondingly  infrequent ;  ^  and  (2)  that  of  Jonson,  Waller, 
Dryden  and  Pope,  whose  manner  is  characterized  by  shorter 
clauses,  inversions  and  interpolations,  which  breaks  up  con- 
tinuity and  prevailingly  places  the  internal  caesura  within  the 
range  of  the  fourth  and  seventh  syllables  of  the  verse,  posi- 

*  See  note  above,  p.  237. 


20  FELIX  E.   SCHELLING. 

tions  which  tend  to  break  the  verse  into  two  halves.  The 
proportion  of  lines  in  which  no  medial  caesura  occurs  is 
largest  in  Spenser,  69  being  the  average;  Sandys'  average  is 
47.  Sandys'  Paraphrase  of  Psalm  LXXIII shows  the  highest 
number  of  continuous  lines,  63;  Pope's  Essay  on  Man  the 
smallest,  17.  Jonson's  average  is  but  26,  showing  a  smaller 
average  number  of  continuous  lines  than  either  Waller  or 
Dry  den,  and  approaching  Poise's  average,  which  is  but  21 . 

The  proportion  of  lines,  which  show  a  rhetorical  pause  or 
caesura  after  the  second  accent,  after  the  arsis  of  the  third 
foot,  and  after  the  third  accent,  hence  producing  the  general 
eflfect  of  cutting  the  verse  into  two  halves,  are  smallest  in 
Spenser  and  Sandys,  their  averages  being  respectively  35  and 
40  to  each  100  lines.  In  Jonson  the  average  of  these  lines 
rises  to  65.2,  which  is  greater  than  Dryden's  53 ;  and  nearly 
that  of  Waller,  56.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  Jonson's 
fondness  for  a  pause  after  the  arsis  of  the  fourth  foot  (seventh 
syllable  of  the  verse),  which  is  shared  by  Pope,  brings  the 
averages  of  these  two,  by  including  that  caesura  with  the  count 
already  taken  of  the  caesuras  of  the  three  preceding  feet,  up  to 
64.4  per  cent,  for  Jonson  and  71  per  cent,  for  Pope.  In  the 
use  of  this  feminine  caesura  and  the  corresponding  caesura  of 
the  previous  foot  (that  after  the  third  arsis),  Jonson's  verse 
is  more  like  that  of  Pope  than  is  Dryden's,  whose  prefer- 
ence is  for  the  masculine  caesura,  i.  e.,  that  after  an  accented 
syllable.  It  is  not  in  the  least  here  assumed  that  the  versifi- 
cation of  Jonson,  Dryden,  and  Pope  is  all  reducible  to  a 
single  definition  ;  but  it  is  claimed  that  the  characteristics  of 
the  versification  of  Jonson's  couplets  are  of  the  type  which, 
developed  through  Dryden  and  Waller,  led  on  logically  to 
the  culmination  of  that  type  in  Pope ;  and  that  no  possible 
development  of  the  couplet  of  Sandys  and  Speuser  could 
have  led  to  a  similar  result. 

Examination  has  been  made  into  the  versification  of  this 
group  of  poets,  not  because  peculiar  store  is  set  upon  such 
matters,  but  because  of  the  mistakes  which  have  arisen  in 


BEN   JONSON  AND   THE  CLASSICAL  SCHOOL.  21 

consequence  of  the  obiter  dicta  of  Dryden  and  of  Pope.  It  was 
sufficient  for  the  subsequent  "  historians  "  of  English  Literature 
to  know  that  in  the  rough  draft  of  an  outline  of  the  course  of 
English  literature,  communicated  by  Pope  to  Warburton,  and 
preserved  by  Ruffhead,  the  great  poet  made  Sandys  in  his 
Paraphrase  of  Job  one  of  the  originals  of  Waller  in  versifica- 
tion ;  the  thing  is  copied  forever  after .^  More  important  is 
the  classical  manner  with  its  crisp  diction,  its  set  figures,  its 
parallel  constructions,  its  contrasted  clauses,  its  inversions. 
Without  pursuing  this  subject  into  minute  detail,  the  follow- 
ing passages  may  be  well  compared. 
In  1660  Dryden  wrote  thus  : 

And  welcome  now,  great  monarch,  to  your  own, 

Behold  th'  approaching  cliffs  of  Albion : 

It  is  no  longer  motion  cheats  your  view, 

As  you  meet  it,  the  land  approacheth  you. 

The  land  returns,  and  in  the  white  it  wears, 

The  marks  of  patience  and  sorrow  bears. 

But  you,  whose  goodness  your  descent  doth  show 

Your  heavenly  parentage,  and  earthly  too, 

By  that  oame  mildness,  which  your  father's  crown 

Before  did  ravish,  shall  secure  your  own.' 

In  obvious  further  development  of  the  same  manner.  Pope 
writes  some  seventy-five  years  later  : 

To  thee,  the  world  its  present  homage  pays. 
The  harvest  early,  but  mature  the  praise ; 
Great  friend  of  liberty !     In  kings  a  name 
Above  all  Greek,  above  all  Boman  fame  : 
Whose  word  is  truth,  as  sacred  as  revered 
As  heav'n's  own  oracles  from  altars  heard. 
Wonder  of  kings !  like  whom  to  mortal  eyes 
None  e'er  has  risen,  and  none  e'er  shall  rise.' 

'  See  Ruffhead's  Zri/e  of  Pope,  1769,  p.  410  »eq.;  also  Pope,  Amer.  ed.,  1854, 
I,  clvi. 

'Aatraea  Redux,  Dryden,  Globe  ed.,  p.  14. 

'First  Epistle  of  the  Second  Book  of  Horace,  To  Augustus,  1737,  Pope,  Chandos 
ed.,  p.  313. 


22  FELIX   E.   SCHELLING. 

Sandys  wrote  as  follows  in  1638,  the  year  after  the  death 
of  Jonson : 

The  Mase,  who  from  your  influence  took  her  birth, 
First  wandered  through  the  many-peopled  earth ; 
Next  8ung  the  change  of  things,  disclosed  th'  unknown. 
Then  to  a  nobler  shape  transformed  her  own ; 
Fetched  from  Engaddi  spice,  from  Jewry  balm, 
And  bound  her  brows  with  Idumaean  palm ; 
Now  old,  hath  her  last  voyage  made,  and  brought 
To  royal  harbor  this  her  sacred  fraught : 
Who  to  her  King  bequeaths  the  wealth  of  Kings, 
And  dying,  her  own  epicedium  sings.' 

But  Jonson  had  written  thus,  near  the  beginning  of  the 
reign  of  James : 

Who  would  not  be  thy  subject  James,  t'  obey 

A  prince  that  rules  by  example  more  than  sway? 

Whose  manners  draw  more  than  thy  powers  constrain, 

And  in  this  short  time  of  thy  happiest  reign, 

Hast  purged  thy  realms,  as  we  have  now  no  cause 

Left  us  for  fear,  but  first  our  crimes,  then  laws. 

Like  aids  'gainst  treason  who  hath  found  before  ? 

And  than  in  them  how  could  we  know  God  more? 

First  thou  preserved  wert,  our  Lord  to  be. 

And  since,  the  whole  land  was  preserv'd  in  thee.' 

These-  four  passages  meet  on  the  common  ground  of  royal 
panegyric,  and  may  be  regarded  as  typical  of  the  manner 
of  each  poet,  and  as  abundantly  upholding  the  conclusions 
already  reached  with  respect  to  their  versification. 

If  now  we  consider  rhetorical  structure  and  remember  how 
true  it  is  of  the  style  of  Pope  that  it  is  built  upon  antithesis 
and  parallel  construction,  word  against  word,  clause  against 
clause,  verse  against  verse,  paragraph  against  paragraph,  and 
what  is  more  important,  thought  against  thought,  we  shall 
find  an  interesting  result.  There  is  nothing  antithetical  in 
the  prevailing  style  of  Sandys,  either  in  his  translation — 

'  Dedication  of  A  Paraphraae  upon  Job.  Sandys,  ed.  Library  of  Old 
Authors,  I,  Ixxix. 

'Epigram  XXXV,  To  King  James,  fol.  1641,  i,  p.  12. 


BEN  JONSON  AND  THE  CLASSICAL  SCHOOL.  23 

except  80  far  as  Hebrew  parallelism  may  easily  account  for 
it — or  in  his  original  verse.  On  the  other  hand  Jonson  knew 
the  value  of  antithetical  construction  and  used  it  with  intelli- 
gence and  frequency,  though  not,  as  did  later  writers,  almost  to 
the  exclusion  of  all  other  rhetorical  devices.  In  the  passages 
from  Dryden  and  Pope  quoted  above,  this  characteristic 
appears  as  prevailingly  in  both  poets;  but  the  quotation 
from  Jonson  also  exemplifies  antithetical  construction  in  all 
its  subtlety.  The  prince  and  his  sviject  are  contrasted ;  the 
prince  rules,  the  subject  obeys.  The  prince  rules  by  example 
more  than  by  sway;  his  manners  draw  more  than  his  powers 
constrain.  The  subject  fears  his  own  crimes  more  than  the 
prince's  laws;  and  in  the  end  the  prince  is  preserved  to  be 
king,  and  his  subjects  are  preserved  in  him  ;  which  last  anti- 
thesis involves  "conceit"  as  it  often  continued  to  do  in  Dryden 
as  witness  "  the  approaching  cliffs  of  Albion  "  in  the  passage 
cited  above. 

The  epigram  of  Jonson  to  King  James,  from  which  the 
lines  above  are  taken,  was  written  in  1604.  The  Panegyric 
on  the  same  Sovereign's  accession,  written  in  the  previous 
year  and  the  earliest  extended  piece  of  Jonson's  writing  in 
couplets,  shows  beyond  any  cavil  the  beginnings  of  those 
qualities  which,  developed,  differentiate  the  couplet  of  Dryden 
and  Pope  from  others'  usage  of  the  same  measure,  and  it 
displays  what  is  more  important,  a  treatment  and  mode  of 
dealing  with  material,  a  diction  and  style  which  equally 
determine  its  kinship.' 

*  I  add  some  typical  instancesi  of  Jonsou's  use  of  this  structure  out  of  the 
scores  that  can  be  culled  from  his  pages.  These  will  be  seen  to  involve 
nearly  all  the  mannerisms  afterwards  carried  to  so  artificial  a  degree  of 
refinement  by  Pope  himself,  and  to  binge,  all  of  them,  on  a  pointed,  con- 
densed and  antithetical  way  of  putting  things. 

Gall'st  a  book  good  or  bad  as  it  doth  sell.     Epigram  3. 
And  I  a  poet  here,  no  herald  am.     Epig.  8. 
He  that  dares  damn  himself,  dares  more  than  fight.     Epig.  16. 
Blaspheme  God  greatly,  or  some  poor  hind  beat.    Epig.  28. 
Look  not  upon  thy  dangers,  but  our /ear«.     Epig.  51. 


24  FELIX   E.  SCHELLINQ. 

An  examination  of  Jonson's  use  of  the  couplet  through 
successive  years  exhibits  less  advance  towards  the  later  regu- 
larity than  might  have  been  supposed,  and  it  can  hardly  be 
affirmed  that  Jonson  was  any  more  rhetorically  constructive 
in  his  later  writings  than  in  those  composed  when  his  classical 
theories  were  new  and  strong  upon  him.  We  cannot  expect 
the  laws  which  govern  organic  growth  to  coincide  with  those 
controlling  constructive  ingenuity ;  a  house  is  built,  a  tree 
grows,  and  the  conscious  and  self-controlled  development  of 
such  a  man  as  Jonson  is  alien  to  the  subtle  and  harmonious 
unfolding  of  a  genius  like  Shakespeare's.  What  we  do  find 
in  Jonson's  use  of  the  devices  of  the  later  classicists  is  a  full 
recognition  of  their  actual  value,  and  an  application  of  each 
to  the  special  needs  and  requirements  of  the  work  which  he 
may  have  in  hand.  Thus  he  employed  the  couplet  for  epi- 
gram and  epistle  alike,  but  used  it  with  greater  terseness  and 

At  once  thou  maJ^st  me  happy  and  unmak^st.     Epig.  55. 

And  hoodwinked  for  a  man,  embrace  a  post.    Epig.  58. 

Active  in's  brains  and  passive  in  his  bones.    Epig.  68. 

And  no  less  vnse  than  skilfvU  in  the  laws.     Epig.  74,  p.  21. 

The  ports  of  Death  are  sins,  of  Life,  good  deeds.    Epig.  80,  p.  23. 

In  making  thy  friends  books,  and  thy  books  friends.    Epig.  86,  p.  24. 

That  dares  not  write  things  false,  nor  hide  things  true.    Epig.  95. 

And  study  conscience  more  than  thou  wouldst /ame.     Epig.  98. 

TVuth  might  spend  all  her  voice,  fame  all  her  art.    Epig.  106. 

And  first  to  know  thine  own  slate,  then  the  staters.     Epig.  109. 

He  wrote  with  the  same  spirit  that  hefougU.    Epig.  110. 

They  murder  him  again  that  envy  thee.     Epig.  111. 

Til  thou  canst  find  the  best  choose  the  least  ill.     Epig.  119. 

And  in  their  error's  maze,  thine  own  way  know, 
Which  is  to  live  to  eonseienee  not  to  show.     Ibid. 

That  strives  his  manners  should  precede  his  wit.    Epig.  121,  p.  39. 

Outdance  the  baiion,  or  outboast  the  brave.     Epig.  130,  p.  41. 

Men  love  thee  not  for  this,  they  laugh  at  thee.    Ibid. 

The  learned  have  no  more  privilege  than  the  lay.    Epig.  132,  p.  42. 

For  fame  with  breath  soon  kindled,  soon  blovm  ouL     Ibid. 

In  place  of  scutcheons,  that  should  deck  thy  hearse, 

Take  better  ornaments,  my  tears  and  verse.    Epig.  27,  p.  10. 


BEN  JONSON  AND  THE  CLASSICAL  SCHOOL.  25 

more  in  accord  with  later  usage  in  the  former,  feeling  that 
fluency  and  a  somewhat  negligent  manner  at  times  were  fitting 
to  epistolary  style.  The  latter  can  be  found  in  any  of  the 
Epistles.  No  better  specimen  of  Jonson's  antithetical  manner 
could  be  found  than  the  fine  epigram  to  Edward  Allen : — 

If  Eome  so  great,  and  in  her  wisest  age, 
Fear'd  not  to  boast  tlie  glories  of  her  stage, 
As  skilful  Roscius,  and  grave  -^sop,  men, 
Yet  crown'd  with  honors,  as  with  riches,  then ; 
Who  had  no  less  a  trumpet  of  their  name, 
Than  Cicero,  wiiose  every  breath  was  fame : 
How  can  so  great  example  die  in  me. 
That,  Allen,  I  should  pause  to  publish  thee  ? 
Who  both  their  graces  in  thyself  hast  more 
Out-stript,  than  they  did  all  that  went  before: 
And  present  worth  in  all  dost  so  contract, 
As  others  speak,  but  only  thou  dost  act. 
Wear  this  renown.    'Tis  just,  that  who  did  give 
So  many  poets  life,  by  one  should  live.' 

The  liberality  of  Jonson's  spirit,  despite  his  own  strong 
preferences,  caused  him  likewise  to  admit  into  his  practice 

Believe  it,  Guilty,  if  you  lose  your  shame, 

I'll  lose  my  modesty,  and  tell  your  name.     Epig.  38,  p.  13. 

That  we  thy  loss  might  know,  and  thou  our  love, 

Great  heav'n  did  well,  to  give  ill  fame  free  wing.    I^pig.  51,  p.  15. 

Nay  ask  you  how  the  day  goes  in  your  ear 

Keep  a  star-chamber  sentence  close  twelve  days 

And  whisper  what  a  proclamation  says.     Ji^ig.  92,  p.  26. 

It  is  the  fair  acceptance.  Sir,  creates 

The  entertainment  perfect,  not  the  cates.     Epig.  101,  p.  30. 

And  did  not  shame  it  by  our  actions  then 

No  more  than  I  dare  now  do  with  my  pen,    Epig.  108,  p.  34. 

Thou  rather  striv'st  the  matter  to  possess 

The  elements  of  honor  than  the  dress.     Epig.  109,  p.  34. 

I  modestly  quit  that,  and  think  to  write 

Next  morn  an  ode;  thou  mak'st  a  song  e'er  night.     Epig.  112,  p.  35. 

I  pity  thy  ill  luck 
That  both  for  wil  and  sense  so  oft  doth  pluck.     Ibid. 

But  blood  not  minds,  but  minds  did  blood  adorn, 

And  to  live  great,  was  better  than  greai  bom.    Epig.  116,  p.  37. 

Who  sees  a  soul  in  such  a  body  set 

Might  love  the  treasure  for  the  cabinet.    Epig.  125,  p.  39. 

^Epigram  LXXXIX,  fol.  1640,  l,  p.  25. 


26  FELIX   E.  SCHELLING. 

forms  which  theoretically  he  disapproved.  He  had  the  sanc- 
tion of  Catullus  and  Tibullus  for  his  lyrics,  but  he  even 
stooped  to  write  a  few  sonnets,  to  bits  of  pastoral  in  the 
prevailing  mode  like  a  Nymph's  Passion,  and  to  concetti 
after  the  manner  of  the  Marinists,  like  the  dainty  trifle,  That 
Women  are  but  Men's  Shadows.  This  eclecticism  of  practice 
in  the  great  classical  theorist  combined  with  the  strong 
influence  of  Donne's  subtle  novelty  of  treatment  and  the 
older  romantic  influence  of  Spenser,  perpetuated  in  men  like 
Drayton,  Drummond  and  the  later  Spenserians,  delayed  the 
incoming  tide  of  classicism,  which  setting  in,  none  the  less, 
about  the  time  of  the  accession  of  Charles  I,  became  the  chief 
current  until  after  the  Restoration,  and  reached  its  full  when 
Milton,  the  last  of  the  Elizabethans,  died. 

i:>othing  could  more  strongly  exemplify  this  eclecticism  in 
the  practice  of  Jonson  than  the  fact  that  two  such  diverse  men 
as  Robert  Herrick  and  Edmund  Waller  were  alike  his  poeti- 
cal "sons."  Herrick,  the  man,  has  a  naive  and  engaging  per- 
sonality, which  is  choice,  though  not  more  sterling  than  the 
solid  worth  of  Ben  Jonson  himself;  whilst  the  frank  Paganism 
of  Herrick,  the  poet,  and  his  joy  in  the  fleeting  beauties  of 
nature  are  things  apart  from  Jonson's  courtly  and  prevail- 
ingly ethical  appraisement  of  the  world.  Notwithstanding, 
Herrick  had  his  priceless  lyrical  gift  of  Jonson,  though  he 
surpassed  his  master  in  it.  Unhappily  for  his  fame,  he 
inherited  also  Jonson's  occasional  grossness  of  thought,  his 
fondness  for  the  obscenities  of  Martial,  and  he  surpassed 
his  master  in  this  as  well.  Waller's  debt  to  Jonson  is  also 
two-fold :  in  the  lyric,  which  he  impoverished  and  conven- 
tionalized, and  in  occasional  verse,  for  which  he  possessed  a 
peculiar  talent,  and  which  he  freed  of  the  weight  of  Jonson's 
learning,  his  moral  earnestness  and  strenuousness  of  style, 
codifying  the  result  into  a  system  which  was  to  give  laws  to 
generations  of  poets  to  come.  Waller  was  a  man,  the  essence 
of  whose  character  was  time-serving,  to  whom  ideals  were 
nothing,  but  to  whom  immediate  worldly  success,  whether  in 


BEN  JONSON  AND  THE  CLASSICAL  SCHOOL.  27 

social  life  or  letters,  was  much ;  a  man  whose  very  unorigi- 
nality  and  easy  adaptability  made  him  precisely  the  person  to 
fill  what  Mr.  Gosse  deftly  calls  the  post  of  "  Coryphaeus  of 
the  long  procession  of  the  commonplace."  The  instinct  of  his 
followers  was  right  in  singling  Waller  out  for  that  position 
of  historical  eminence,  not  because,  as  a  boy,  he  sat  down 
and  deliberately  resolved  on  a  new  species  of  poetry,  but 
because  he  chose  out  with  unerring  precision  just  those  quali- 
ties of  thought,  form  and  diction  which  appealed  to  the  people 
of  his  age,  and  wrote  and  re-wrote  his  poetry  in  conformity 
therewith.  In  Carew,  Waller  found  the  quintessence  of  vers 
de  sociite,  and  "reformed"  it  of  its  excessive  laces  and  fall- 
ing-bands to  congruity  with  the  greater  formality  which 
governed  the  costume  of  the  succeeding  century.  Lastly, 
in  Jonson  he  found  an  increasing  love  of  that  regularity 
of  rhythm  which  results  from  a  general  correspondence  of 
length  of  phrase  with  length  of  measure,  amongst  much  with 
which  he  was  in  little  sympathy,  a  minute  attention  to  the 
niceties  of  expression,  a  kind  of  spruce  antithetical  diction, 
and  a  versification  of  a  constructiveness  suited  to  the  epi- 
grammatic form  in  which  the  thought  was  often  cast.  In 
Sandys,  Fairfax,  Drummond  and  some  others,  he  found  a 
smoothness  and  sweetness  of  diction,  in  which  these  poets 
departed  measurably  from  their  immediate  contemporaries  and 
preserved  something  of  the  mellifluousness  of  the  Spenserians. 
With  almost  feminine  tact  Waller  applied  these  things  to  his 
unoriginal  but  carefully  chosen  subject-matter,  and  in  their 
union  wrought  his  success. 

The  real  value  of  the  following  age  of  repression  consisted 
in  its  recognition  of  the  place  that  the  understanding  must 
hold — not  only  in  the  production  of  prose — but  in  the  pro- 
duction of  every  form  of  enduring  art.  It  endeavored  to 
establish  a  standard  by  which  to  judge,  and  failed,  less 
because  of  the  inherent  weakness  of  the  restrictive  ideal, 
than  because  the  very  excess  of  the  imaginative  age  preced- 
ing drove  the  classicists  to  a  greater  recoil  and  made  them 


28  FELIX  E.   SCHELLINO. 

content  with  the  correction  of  abuse  instead  of  solicitous  to 
found  their  reaction  upon  a  sure  foundation.  The  essential 
cause  of  this  great  change  in  the  literature  of  England,  above 
all  question  of  foreign  origin,  precocious  inventiveness  of 
individual  poets,  artificial  and  "  classical  heroic  couplets," 
lies  in  the  gradual  increase  of  the  understanding  as  a  regula- 
tive force  in  the  newer  literature,  the  consequent  rise  of  a 
well-ordered  prose,  and  the  e-  Hy  consequent  suppression 
for  several  decades  of  that  fr  .^y  of  the  imagination  which 
is  the  vitalizing  atmosphere  of  poetry. 

Making  due  allowance  for  the  existence  of  many  concurrent 
forces,  English  and  foreign,  which  made  for  the  coming  age 
of  repression,  but  which  it  is  not  within  the  province  of  this 
paper  to  discuss,  it  has  been  the  endeavor  of  this  enquiry  to 
establish  the  following  points: — 

1.  That  the  position  of  Ben  Jonson  was  such  as  to  give  a 
sanction  and  authority  to  his  opinions  and  practise  above  any 
man  of  his  age. 

2.  That  Jonson's  theories  were  those  of  the  classicist  from 
the  first,  though  put  forward  and  defended  with  a  liberality 
of  spirit  and  a  sense  of  the  need  of  the  adaptation  of  ancient 
canons  of  art  to  changed  English  conditions,  that  warrant 
the  use  of  the  term,  assimilative  classicism,  as  applied  to 
these  theories. 

3.  That  the  practice  of  Jonson  as  exemplified  in  his 
works  exhibits  all  the  "notes"  of  this  assimilative  classi- 
cism ;  amongst  them  in  subject,  a  preference  for  applied  poetry 
over  pure  poetry,  as  exemplified  in  his  liking  for  satire,  epi- 
gram, translation  and  occasional  verse ;  in  treatment,  a  sense 
of  design  and  construction,  repressiveness  and  selectiveness,  a 
feeling  for  brevity  and  condensity,  a  sense  of  finish,  and  the 
allusiveness  of  the  scholar;  in  diction,  qualities  distinctive 
of  the  coming  "classical"  age,  such  as  care  in  the  choice  of 
words,  a  slightly  Latinized  vocabulary,  the  employment  of  a 
spruce,  antithetical  style,  and  the  use  of  parallel  construction 
and  epigram ;  in  versification,  a  preference  for  the  decasyllabic 


BEN   JONSON   AND   THE   CLASSICAL  SCHOOL.  29 

couplet  and  the  writing  of  it  in  a  manner,  which  is  distin- 
guishable from  the  continuous  manner  of  Spenser,  but  which 
contains  all  tlie  distinctive  characteristics  which,  developed, 
led  on  to  the  later  use  of  this  measure  by  Waller,  Dryden 
and  Pope. 

4.  That  these  theories  and  practices  of  Jonson  are  trace- 
able in  his  work  from  the  first,  and  in  their  range,  consistency, 
and  intensity  antedate  similar  theories  and  practise  in  the 
works  of  any  other  English  writer. 

From  all  this  is  derived  the  conclusion  that  there  is  not 
a  trait  which  came  to  prevail  in  the  poetry  of  the  new  classic 
school  as  practised  by  Waller  and  Dryden,  and  later  by  Pope, 
which  is  not  directly  traceable  to  the  influence  or  to  the  example 
of  Ben  Jonson.  We  cannot  but  view  with  renewed  respect  a 
genius  so  overmastering  that  it  became  not  only  the  arbiter 
of  its  own  age,  but  gave  taws  which  afforded  sanction  and 
precedent  to  generations  of  successors. 


INDEX. 


Alexandrine,  the,  15. 

American  Journcd  of  Philology,  8. 

Anacreon,  6. 

Anne,  Age  of,  contrasted  with  the 
Age  of  Elizabeth,  8;  losses  and 
gains  in  literature  after  the  Res- 
toration and  in  the,  9. 

Anniversary,  The,  7. 

Antithesis,  22-25,  28. 

Appreciations,  1. 

Arcadia,  3,  12. 

Astrophel  and  Stella,  3. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  2  {Ms),  10, 
12. 

Arnold,  Poema  of  Matthew,  2,  12. 

Arthur,  King,  13. 

AscHAM,  Roger,  3. 

Astroea  Redux,  16,  21. 

Bacon,  Francis,  Lord  St.  Albans, 

13. 
Beauty,  worship  of,  as  an  inspiration 

in   verse,  4;   Jonson's  conception 

of,  6. 
Bedford,  Lucy,  Countess  of,  5. 
"  Beginnings  of  the '  Cla.ssical '  Heroic 

Couplet  in  England,"  8. 
Browne,  William,  4. 
Browning,  Robert,  2. 

Caesura,  the,  15,  17-20. 
Camden,  William,  13. 
Canzone,  the,  3. 
Carew,  Thomas,  27. 


Carlyle,  Thomas,  11. 

Catl'llus,  6,  26. 

Chapman,  George,  13,  16  f. 

Chaucer,  Geoffrey,  3. 

Classical  prosody  in  English  verse, 
3;  Allusions  in  Jonson,  6. 

Classicism,  Nature  of,  1,  2;  three 
periods  of,  in  English  literature 
since  the  Renaissance,  2 ;  Sid- 
ney's, 3,  4;  tendency  to,  in  Sid- 
ney's time,  3;  of  Jonson,  6  f.,  11 
f.,  14,  28;  theories  as  to  the 
origin  of,  after  the  Restoration, 
8  f.;  Sandys  and,  8,  21  ;  and 
decasylhibic  verse,  9 ;  losses  and 
gains  due  to  England's  period  of 
so-called,  9;  romanticism  and,  co- 
existent in  the  Age  of  Elizabeth, 
11  ;  exhibited  in  the  manner  of 
Dryden,  21  ;  period  of,  why  de- 
layed after  Jonson,  26;  value  of 
this  period  of,  27. 

Come<ly  of  Manners,  10. 

Conversations  with  JJrummond,  7,  12, 
15 

Cou|)let,  tiie  heroic,  8,  9,  28  ;  Jon- 
son on  tlie,  15;  Jonson's  u^e  of 
the,  15  f.,  24  f.,  28  f.;  the,  as 
used  by  various  typical  poets  with 
scheme,  16-19 ;  nineteenth  cen- 
tury use  of,  19. 

Criticism  of  Jonson,  Dryden,  and 
Pope,  9  f. 

Cross  rhymes,  15. 

"  Cuddy,"  3. 

31 


32 


INDEX. 


Daniel,  Samuel,  13. 

Defence  of  Poetry,  3  (bis), 

Deo  Optimo  Maximo,  16,  18. 

Discoveries,  12,  14,  15. 

DoNNK,  John,  influence  of,  7,  26 ; 
a  romanticist,  7 ;  conapared  with 
Jonson  and  Spenser,  8;  Jonson's 
appreciation  of  the  verse  of, 
13. 

Drama,  the,  9,  10,  12  f. 

Drayton,  Michael,  4,  16  f., 
26. 

Dbummond,  William,  7,  26,  27. 

Dryden,  John,  compared  with  Jon- 
son and  Pope,  9  f.,  18  f.;  plays 
of,  10;  forms  of  verse  affected  by, 
10 ;  prose  of,  10 ;  a  theorist  con- 
cerning literature,  11;  influence 
of,  11;  verse  structure  of,  16, 
18-20 ;  classicism  exhibited  in 
the  manner  of,  21  ;  rhetorical 
structure  of,  23;  historical  rela- 
tion of  .Jonson  to,  16,  20,  29. 

Dryden,  Poems  of,  16,  21. 


Egotists,  influence  of,  6. 

Eifjhteenlh  Century  Literature,  8. 

Eleyy  on  Lady  Winton,  16. 

Elizabeth,  Age  of,  and  the  Age  of 
Anne,  8 ;  classicism  and  roman- 
ticism coexistent  in  the,  11. 

EnglamCs  Heroical  Epistles,  16. 

English  literature,  changes  in,  in 
the  17th  century,  1,  8;  three 
periods  of  classicism  in,  2 ;  poetry 
vs.  prose  in,  10. 

English  Worthies,  14. 

Epigrams,  5,  15,  16,  19,  22,  23  f., 
25. 

Epistle  to  Sir  Godfrey  Kneller,  16. 

Essay  on  Man,  1 6. 

Every  Man  in  His  Humour,  13. 

Every  Man  ovA  of  his  Humour,  12  f. 

Execration  upon  Vulcan,  An,  16. 


j  Faerie  Queene,  3. 

I  Fairfax,  Edward,  27. 

First  Epistle  of  the  Second  Book  of 
Horace,  21. 

Fletcher,  Giles  and  Phineas, 
4. 

Forest,  The,  15. 

Fraunce,  Abraham,  3. 

French  prose,  10. 

From  Shakespeare  to  Pope,  9. 

Gascoigne,  George,  3. 

Greek  literature,    1,    2,    3,    6,    13, 

14. 
GossE,  Edmund,  8,  9,  27. 
GossoN,  Stephen,  3. 

Heroic  Couplet,  see  Couplet. 

Horace,  6,  12. 

Harvey,  Gabriel,  3  (bis). 

Heroic  Drama  of  Dryden,  10. 

Herrick,  Robert,  13,  26. 

Hexameter,  the,  15. 

Hero  and  Leander,  16. 

Hind  and  the  Panthei;  The,  16,  19. 

"  Hobbinol,"  3. 

Hooker,  Richard,  13. 

Institutes,  12. 

James  VI,  3. 

Jonson,  Benjamin,  classicism  of, 
2,  4,  6  f.,  11  f.,  12  f.,  14,  22, 
28 ;  contrast  between  Spenser 
and,  4  ;  characteristics  of  the 
poetry  of,  5  f.,  9,  12,  22,  26, 
28;  feeling  of,  for  form,  5,  12 
f.,  14,  23,  25  f.;  use  of  classi- 
cal and  mythological  allusion 
by,  6 ;  influence  of,  6  f.,  8, 
28 ;  and  Shakespeare  compared, 
6 ;  popularity  of,  with  the  court 
and  with  learned  men,  6 ;  de- 
pendent and  often  in  want,  6 ; 
and  Donne,  7 ;  compared  with 
Donne    and    Spenser,    8 ;     com- 


INDEX. 


33 


pared  with  Dryden  and  Pope, 
9  f. ;  plays  of,  9  ;  subject-matter 
of,  9 ;  a  theorist  concerning  litera- 
ture, 11  ;  not  conciliatory  toward 
literary  taste  of  his  time,  12; 
strictures  of,  on  Shakespeare,  Sid- 
ney, Donne,  and  others,  12,  13, 
15 ;  catholicity  of  taste  of,  13 ; 
a  rhetorician,  14 ;  the  prose  of, 
14 ;  on  metrical  forms,  15 ;  pro- 
jected epic  of,  16 ;  on  the  coup- 
let, 15 ;  use  of  the  couplet  by, 
15  f. ;  versification  of,  17-20, 
28 ;  couplets  of,  of  the  same 
type  as  Dryden's,  Waller's,  and 
Pope's,  20 ;  rhetorical  structure 
of  the  verse  of,  22  f.,  25,  28; 
eclecticism  of,  25  f.;  and  his 
"sons,"  26;  character  of,  26  f . ; 
summary  of  conclusions  regard- 
ing, 28  f. 
Jonson's  Conversalions  with  Drummond, 
7,  12  f, 

JtrVENAL,  10. 

Keats,  John,  7,  19. 
Keats,  Poems  of  John,  7. 

Literary  Injluence  of  Academies,  The, 

10. 
Lyric  verse  of  Jonson,  Dryden  and 

Pope,  9  f. 

Marinism,  7,  8,  26. 
Marlowe,  Christopher,  16  f. 
Martial,  26. 
Masque,  the,  9. 
Metre,  experiments  in,  3,  15. 
Milton,  John,  5,  9,  26. 
Morris,  William,  2. 
Mother  Hubherd's  Tale,  16. 
.  Mythological    allusion    in    Jonson, 
6. 

Nymph's  Passion,  26. 


Ode,  the,  12. 

Odes  for  St.  Cecilia's  Day,  10. 

Occasional  verse  of  Jonson,  Dryden, 
and  Pope,  9  f. 

On  the  Duke  of  Monmouth's  Expedi- 
tion, 16. 

On  the  Earl  of  Roscommon's  Transla- 
tion of  Horace,  1 6. 

Panegyry  on  the  happy  Entrance  of 
Jnmes,  A,  Id,  23. 

Parallelism,  22,  28. 

Paraphrase  upon  the  Book  of  Job,  16, 
29. 

Pastoral  verse,  13,  26. 

Pater,  Walter,  1. 

Penniman,  J.  H.,  13. 

Pindar,  13. 

Poetry,  nature  of,  .ns  differentiated 
from  prose,  1 1  f. 

Pope,  Alexandei;,  classicism  of, 
2,  21 ;  compared  with  Jonson 
and  Dryden,  9 ;  used  verse  to 
express  thought  now  expressed  in 
prose,  10;  influence  of,  11;  ver- 
sification of,  16-20 ;  historical 
relation  of  Jonson  to,  20,  29 ; 
affirmed  Sandys  to  be  one  of  the 
originals  of  Waller,  21 ;  rlietori- 
cal  structure  of,  22  f. 

Pope,  Life  of  21. 

Pope,  Poems  of,  2). 

Portsmouth,  Duchess  of,  8. 

Prose,  of  Dryden,  10 ;  nature  of,  as 
differentiated  from  poetry,  11  f.; 
of  Jonson,  14. 

Proso«ly,  classical,  in  English  verse, 
3. 

Piulm  LXXIII,  16,  29. 

Publications  of  tlie  University  of  Penn- 
sylvania, 13. 

Puttenham,  George,  3. 

Quintilian,  12. 


34 


INDEX. 


Religious  verse  of  Dryden,  10. 

Restoration,  literary  loss  and  gain 
after  the,  9. 

Roman  literature,  1,  2,  3,  6,  12, 
14. 

Romanticism,  nature  of,  1,  2 ;  of 
Sidney,  2;  novelty  the  touch- 
stone of,  4 ;  of  Spenser  and 
Donne,  7  f.  ;  and  restrictive 
tendency  co-existent  in  the  age 
of  Elizabeth,  11. 

Rtjffhead,  Owen,  21. 

Run-on  couplets  and  lines,  17-19. 

RusKiN,  John,  11. 

-Sad  Shepherd,  13. 

Sandys,  George,  new  school  of 
verse  fathered  on,  8 ;  Jonson's 
appreciation  of,  13 ;  versification 
of,  16-20;  affirmed  by  Pope  to 
be  one  of  the  originals  of  Waller, 
21;  classicism  of,  22;  rhetorical 
structure  of,  22  f. 

Satire  of  Jonson,  of  Dryden  and 
Pope,  9  f. 

Sestine,  the,  3. 

School  of  Abuse,  3. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  6. 

Selden,  John,  13. 

Shakespeare,  William,  6,  12. 

Shelley,  Pebcy  Bysshe,  2. 

Shepherds'  Calendar,  13. 

Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  classicism  and 
romanticism  of,  2,  3,  6 ;  ex- 
periments of,  in  classical  metres, 
3  (bis) ;  in  Italian  verse-forms, 
3 ;  strictures  of  Jonson  on,  12. 

Spenser,  Edmund,  metrical  experi- 
ments of,  13 ;  relation  of,  to  the 
classics,  13 ;  infiuence  of,  4,  26 ; 
contrast     between     Jonson    and, 


4,  7  f.;  a  worshiper  of  beautyi 
4;  the  followers  of,  4  f.;  expo- 
nent of  the  romantic  movement, 
7 ;  Jonson's  appreciation  of,  13  i 
Jonson's  strictures  on  the  stanza, 
of,  15;  versification  of,  16-20; 
imitated  Chaucer,  17. 

Spenserian  stanza,  15. 

Stanihurst,  Richard,  3. 

Sleep  and  Poetry,  7. 

Sonnet,  the,  3,  13,  14,  26. 

"  Sons,"  the,  of  Jonson,  13,  26. 

Southwell,  Robert,  13. 

Symonds,  J.  A.,  14. 

That  Women  are  but  Men's  Shadows, 
26. 

TiBULLUS,  26. 

To  Edward  Allen,  25. 

To  King  James,  22  f. 

To  the  King,  16. 

Translation,  activity  of  Jonson,  Dry- 
den, and  Pope  in,  9  f. 

Underwoods,  15. 

Wallkb,  Edmund,  alleged  to  be 
the  originator  of  the  New  Verse, 
8 ;  historical  relation  of,  to  Jon- 
son, 16,  20,  29 ;  versification  of, 
16-20;  a  "son"  of  Jonson,  26; 
debt  of,  to  Jonson,  26  ;  character 
of,  26  f.;  debt  of,  to  Carew  and 
others,  27. 

War  of  the  Theatres,  The,  13. 

Warburton,  William,  21. 

Webbe,  William,  3  (bis). 

Windsor  Forest,  16. 

Wither,  George,  4. 

Wood,  Henry,  8, 

Wordsworth,  William,  2,  11. 


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